DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Through our interviews and discussion with Durham County residents, we have not found one overarching way in which the Durham County community defines itself. Instead there are many separate "units of identity," or psychological, relational, organizational, and cultural groups that interlock in order to form a broader community. People in Durham County often identify with the specific neighborhood or section of the city in which they live, as opposed to saying that they are residents of Durham County. Others identify with the school that their children attend, which may present problems for neighborhood cohesiveness in that parents in any given neighborhood may be sending their children to many different high schools or elementary schools. There are multiple organizations to which Durham residents belong such as the NAACP, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, and civic organizations such as the Rotary Club. Community members also identify with their church, synagogue, or religious organization to which they belong. Durham County community members, for the most part, do not define their community as being countywide. Most people, when they speak of the Durham community, refer to the city of Durham as opposed to the county. Rural residents may be the few Durham residents who identify with the county as their community. However, ironically, they may not benefit from the services that are supposed to be "countywide."

Although Durham residents identify themselves in many ways, these units of identity often do not become "units of solution," or collaborations of two or more units of identity that pool their resources in order to address a common goal. Organizations such as the Inter-neighborhood Council seem to be attempting to solve problems that affect the greater community, but certain groups may have a stronger voice than others. For example, the Partners Against Crime (P.A.C.) neighborhood groups enable residents to come together to address issues such as crime and housing. However, public housing residents may not be fully represented in these efforts. Crime is a topic that almost everyone we talked to identified as a key issue for Durham County, although there was some debate about whether the crime rate was actually improving, especially crime against Hispanics. An example of a group that has come together to address this problem is the Durham Congregations in Action, a ministerial alliance. One of its functions has been to hold vigils where there have been violent deaths in Durham. By doing so they have brought attention to the problem of crime in the larger Durham County community.

While there are difficulties that inhibit different units of identity from coming together, Durham County is gifted with a vast pool of talents, skills, and resources. As such, Durham's capacity for change and overcoming barriers is great. There are plenty of people who are willing to volunteer for service, and there is a strong desire among many to celebrate the diversity of the community. Residents of the faith community also are willing to put their efforts into projects aimed at decreasing violence and poverty. An example of a group that is starting to bring together people of different classes and ethnicities is the South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces, Inc. (S.E.E.D.S.) program. This group seeks to organize residents, the city government, and corporations to transform vacant land into productive spaces (S.E.E.D.S., 2000).

Most organizations, however, are aimed at addressing the needs of subpopulations, such as the African American community. Other organizations, such as the Department of Social Services, attempt to serve a wider range of people and for the most part succeed. However, language barriers are a significant problem for ensuring equal access to these sorts of services, particularly for Hispanics.

Upon reflection, we have noted some differences between what some of our secondary data suggests as being important issues, and what community members and service providers revealed to be their areas of concern. For example, the data indicates that Durham County is experiencing a period of economic prosperity overall. Durham is one of the wealthiest counties in the state, but this wealth does not equally benefit all the residents of the county. Many community members we talked to worried about paying for their medication or are struggling to pay bills while working multiple jobs. There are many job opportunities available, but as noted previously, those without certain skills (such as computer literacy) are very limited in their options. Also, the secondary data shows a high rate of AIDS and STDs in Durham County, as compared to the state. Yet, community members rarely mentioned these health problems as issues of concern. This may indicate that the primary felt needs of residents (such as adequate housing and a living wage) should be addressed before health problems like sexually transmitted diseases will be successfully dealt with.

In order to address an issue or problem, it is often best to approach it from multiple levels. The Socio-Ecological Framework allows one to look at an issue on various levels such as the intrapersonal (individual behavior), interpersonal (family, peers), community, institutional/ organizational, and policy levels. These levels become progressively larger in scope from individual behaviors to policy decisions that may have a great effect on the social and physical environment. We have analyzed each of our themes by which level(s) the causes or determinants of the problems fit in and at which level(s) a possible intervention or solution could be targeted. This is presented in Table 17 below:

Table 17: Determinants of Various Themes by Level of Socio-Ecological Framework

Community and policy level approaches for issues related to job training would probably be most appropriate. It is essential for this theme that those who traditionally have lacked a voice in policy issues (e.g., those who live in public housing) be included in any coalition building or interventions. The theme of poverty is perhaps also best addressed at the policy level, as this could have the most widespread effect on poor Durham community members. In general, we have found that the higher levels of the Socio-Ecological Framework are more applicable to addressing the needs of Durham County residents in that they deal with the broader causes and solutions to problems.

For housing, change at the policy level needs be made to make loans more easily accessible for those struggling to buy a house. Also, interventions should be designed that target the community level and help people increase the skills needed to go about buying a house as well as increase opportunities for home ownership. Efforts to increase home ownership should continue to solicit collaboration from community members as well as organizations. When addressing crime special attention should be made to the availability and unequal distribution of services, such as domestic violence resources, as well as addressing the underlying contributors of crime, such as drugs and poverty. This can be addressed at the community, institutional, and policy levels.

For the issue of behavioral health, a community level program could be implemented to raise awareness about the prevalence and seriousness of these problems, before actually working on changing policy to better serve those in need. For health issues, community level changes can be targeted to improve the overall quality of life, such as making sure neighborhoods have access to places where they can safely exercise or buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

For the theme of Hispanic issues, an intervention targeted at the policy or organizational levels may be particularly helpful for such problems as language difficulties or crime as a result of Hispanics being unable to get a bank account. For the latter problem, there is already a Hispanic credit union being established. In relation to the theme of Education, a problem that was repeatedly mentioned was that of the disproportionate numbers of African American students who were suspended or who dropped out. Mentoring programs and youth activities may be effective ways of preventing these problems from occurring. An effective intervention for rural Durham County might target the policy level also, in order to emphasize the need for funding for recreational facilities and adequate transportation for health care.

A general recommendation that we would make for those considering starting an intervention in Durham County would be to avoid just assessing the needs of the community. There is already plenty of needs-based assessment going on, and more of this (such as mapping health problems by zip code) would only fuel the sentiment of many Durham residents that there is too much talk and "diagnosis" and not enough action. It has been said that "Durham has more non-profits per square foot than any other city this side of the Mississippi." This is an indication of the wealth of indigenous talents and resources that already exist in Durham County. By focusing on the strengths of the various communities in the county, one might be able to better mobilize people into utilizing their skills in addressing the problems that they identify as important.

Many people in Durham are frustrated with "the system" and feel that service providers are often overworked and under-funded. Perhaps by tapping into the history of social change in Durham and working to bring different units of identity (churches, ethnicities, etc.) together into units of solution, some of the ownership for community change can be taken off of beleaguered service providers. We feel that more community organizations do not necessarily need to be created to address the needs of Durham residents. Instead, we suspect that the vast majority of people in Durham are not aware of all the services that are already available to them, and more of an effort needs to be made to help people realize what organizations already exist. This 'assets mapping' approach to community organizing will better allow for the kinds of collaboration needed between Durham County's many organizations in order to effect countywide change.

Because a county-wide community diagnosis has never been attempted before this year, we acknowledge the limitations of this project to adequately assess the strengths and needs of the entire area. Our interviews have revealed that most people do not relate to Durham County as a whole as their community. Perhaps those attempting community assessments in the future should consider looking at smaller units of analysis. However, it is still our hope that our document will be a useful resource for those service providers and community members who are working to improve the overall health of the Durham County community.

Rural Durham County

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References